Teaching Art from the Hip and Heart

After we learned a little bit about Vincent Van Gogh and celebrated his many works of art, it was time to start creating. Most of my children had seen the painting “Starry Night” and some had even done an art project based on it. I personally don’t like replicating artwork. I want everyone to come up with their own ideas and it’s very hard to do so when there’s a big example looming overhead. So, instead of focusing so much on replicating Starry Night, we focused on learning some vocabulary and practicing some new drawing techniques.

First, we discussed distance and perspective. We discussed foreground, middle ground, and background. We discussed how to make something look closer or further away. We drew cubes which would then be shaped into buildings. The funnest part for me was discussing what you might find in a town. You know you are at an international school when children begin drawing mosques, churches, and temples next to each other. Love it! It got a little out of hand when students wanted to start drawing the Birj Khalifa in their small villages.

Then we dug into the messiest tray of oil pastels and started to use small strokes to create our stars, the wind, and anything else our hearts desired.

The final step was incorporating watercolors on top of the oil pastels. It is such a joyful and magical moment when you witness how your paper changes when you add some watercolor paint. I love the results. They are all unique and so beautiful.